No trial date set for teen homicide defendant

A judge did not set a trial date for a 15-year-old Erie homicide defendant who appeared in court Tuesday for his formal arraignment.

The defendant, Keyon E. Lucas, who faces charges including homicide in the January shooting death of 24-year-old Lavelle Beason, will instead receive a trial date after the defense files pretrial motions, Erie County Judge John Garhart said.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Garcia said during the hearing that he anticipates the defense will file a motion to decertify, or transfer Lucas's case to Juvenile Court.

Lucas's court-appointed lawyer, Alison Scarpitti, did not comment at the hearing on what pretrial motions she plans to file.

Garcia said after Lucas's May 19 preliminary hearing that the Erie County District Attorney's Office is pursuing a first-degree murder conviction against Lucas, who is one of Erie County's youngest homicide defendants.

Lucas was 14 years old when Erie police charged him in Beason's Jan. 23 shooting death.

Police accused Lucas of firing gunshots at Beason while Beason was sitting in a van in the 500 block of East 22nd Street. Beason was shot through the front windshield of the van as he sat in the front passenger seat. The driver of the van took Beason to UPMC Hamot, where he was pronounced dead.

Lucas disappeared after the shooting, but U.S. marshals on Feb. 22 found him hiding in the basement crawl space of a house in Detroit along with another Erie homicide suspect, 25-year-old Grover H. Lyons, who was wanted on charges of fatally shooting 28-year-old Darrin Germany Jr. on Erie’s east side on Dec. 31.

Each was placed in detention in Wayne County, Michigan, and held there until Erie police brought them back to Erie in March. Lyons was formally arraigned in May and is scheduled to face trial in late July.

Lucas is in the Erie County Prison without bond because he is charged with homicide. In addition to the homicide charge, Lucas faces five counts of aggravated assault, four counts of reckless endangerment and one count each of carrying a firearm without a license, possession of a firearm by a minor, person not to possess a firearm, possession of the instrument of a crime, discharge of a firearm into an occupied structure and flight to avoid apprehension.

Madeleine O'Neill can be reached at 870-1728 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNoneill.